


Just Another Day

by uaigneach



Series: What People Forget [3]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Danny doesn't realize how wild things are, Danny has ptsd, Electrocution, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Unreliable Narrator, both my twists and the actual show, lowkey, that's basically this series guys, there's a lot to be considered in this universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:48:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23240470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uaigneach/pseuds/uaigneach
Summary: Something that those in the know tended to overlook was the simple fact that Danny had died. He had been only 14.Circumstances had always been against him.Eventually, people notice.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton, Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson
Series: What People Forget [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664080
Comments: 53
Kudos: 1180





	Just Another Day

**Author's Note:**

> So the credit for the inspiration for this story was a user with the user [DarkWarriorProgram (KoolKat_SuperStar_DareDevil)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoolKat_SuperStar_DareDevil/pseuds/DarkWarriorProgram) so thanks for giving me the idea! This is a multi-chaptered fic, so please stay posted for the next two chapters in this addition to the universe.

Something that Sam and Tucker tended to forget was that Danny had been electrocuted to death.

If the portal hadn’t activated, Danny would have died. And he would have stayed dead. The only reason that he ended up in the half state that he was stuck in—

could he still die? Would he age as normal? What happened when (if) he died?

—was because the ectoplasm and electricity messed with his DNA. It practically rewrote his physiology.

There are days when his body doesn’t feel right. Like it was too tight or too heavy. Going ghost made it easier to deal with, but there was always the fear that he’d go ghost one too many times and he wouldn’t be able to come back. On those days, he knew he was more dead than alive. That terrified him.

But his death hadn’t been peaceful. He’d been electrocuted and then changed at the molecular level. That hurt. That left physical reminders. After dying, he’d become paler and incapable of tanning. He didn’t burn either, but as time wore on, it was more troublesome than helpful. He gained a near constant chill, albeit it didn’t really bother him. He couldn’t feel it like Sam, Jazz or Tucker could. His core temperature lowered to the point of hypothermia. If he’d been human, he would have been dead twice over.

The electricity itself had left a latticework of thin white scars all over his body. They blended in fairly well with his new pale and gaunt skin tone, but Danny still knew that they were there. It bothered him sometimes; that Sam and Tucker so easily forgot.

He had been 14.

He still had nightmares about the pain and the _fire._

His parents hadn’t even gotten any better.

He just wanted them to be proud of him. Just once, he didn’t want to be the fuck-up son. A small part of him would always hate Jazz, if only just a little bit. She was perfect. She was practically a carbon copy of their mother is everything but personality. She was going to go to a prestigious university and years early too. She’d follow in their footsteps and study science — always sure it was psychology, but it was at Harvard so it really didn’t matter.

At this point, Danny was going to be lucky to graduate.

And it wasn’t even because he was stupid either! He was still a Fenton. He wanted to be an astronaut; to see the stars. He wanted to accomplish so much. Now it all seemed so pointless.

He’d always struggled with school. He couldn’t pay attention and while he knew on some level that it was really heckin’ important to learn trigonometry, he couldn’t stop feeling like it was all so pointless. Now more than ever, it seems that it really was. Now his concern was more ya know… staying alive.

Who knows if he has a time limit on his half-life? It’s not like he could just go to the doctors. It’s not like any of them know anything beyond first aid.

They couldn’t even use Vlad as an example because it was an entirely different portal. It was also under completely different circumstances.

Danny had thought about this a lot during the nights when he just couldn’t get any sleep. Ever since he was conceived, he’d been exposed to an innumerable amount of chemicals and artificial ectoplasm. Performing questionable experiments while pregnant was definitely not one of Maddie’s finer moments. There was also a reason why neither Maddie nor Jack were allowed to cook. They’d managed to bring hotdogs to life _before_ the ghost portal really opened. Eating stuff like that while he was developing? Well, it certainly lended a possible explanation for why he survived the electrical surge.

There really was no saying what the ‘ectoplasm’ had done to his body before the ghost portal. At least, he’d always been a ticking time bomb. He may be in a stable state now, but the question was always ‘when’, not ‘if’.

So Danny wasn’t stupid. He just… struggled with school. It wasn’t a great setting for him.

After the ghost portal, his performance had taken a turn for the worst. If he wasn’t just running out of days to fight a ghost or not doing an assignment because he was busy fighting ghosts, he was unable to focus because he was doing his best to recover from serious injuries. It was very had to focus on a math test when you had several broken ribs and a slash a couple inches across your thigh.

How could he even begin to care when he was so busy with just staying alive. He was fighting a battle on 3 fronts — school, ghosts, and his parents. If one really wanted to get technical, then one could throw in Vlad and Valerie as another concern. Hell, Dash and the A-Listers were their own concern too.

With fighting his parents _and_ ghosts in both of his ‘forms’, school just seemed like too much of a stretch. So he stopped caring.

Sam and Jazz made sure that he didn’t fail, and that was good enough for him.

He’d come across a spot of good fortune. His teachers seemed to be a fountain of patience and were a large factor in why he wasn’t failing. He didn’t know why they were being so kind, but he would take what he could get and wasn’t going to question it lest it stop.

Danny was 16 now and it had been 2 years since he’d died. He was in his junior year of high school and had defeated a variety of enemies, including an alternate version of himself. He’d always known that there was the potential inside him to use it, but seeing it in action was still frightening. What was worse, was that he couldn’t even say that he wouldn’t become something like Dan if something were to happen to the people he cared about.

Another thing that the people in the know tended to forget was that he _was_ a ghost He, like all others, had an obsession.

His obsession was a bit more abstract than other ghosts like Skulker. He was obsessed with protection, which really was a ‘no duh’ moment, especially after Dan. But for all Vlad’s taunting, even he didn’t understand just what Danny’s obsession meant. Hell, Danny didn’t even know what his obsession meant.

(He really didn’t want to think about how Vlad’s obsession was his _mom_.)

He almost lost it once when he saw Dash push Sam in the hallways. He was fully ready to ‘go ghost’ and launch Dash through a wall. If Dash hadn’t gone after him next by shoving up against a locker, he probably would have.

His ability — and his willingness — to stop himself from acting on his instincts had diminished aggressively over the years.

Sam and Tucker tried to brush it off, but Danny knew better. He had never been the king of moral high ground, but he’d caught himself making more and more questionable decisions and all in the name of protecting those that he cared about. But there was nothing to be done about it. This was his life now, and all he could do was try to catch himself when (not if — not anymore) he took things too far.

And that’s how he ended up storming out of the school when Paulina began insulting Sam. Sam was strong; Danny was more than sure that she could handle herself. In fact, she’d probably get all upset if Danny even tried to intervene; she was prideful like that.

So he walked away because if he stayed for another second, then he wasn’t going to be able to stop himself from snapping Paulina’s arm, former crush or no. He was just seeing red.

It didn’t matter that he would be missing class. He needed to _go_ or someone was going to get hurt.

He didn’t know how far he walked, but by the time he’d cooled off, he didn’t recognize the part of Amity that he was in. Just perfect. And to make things even better, that’s when Skulker in all of his glory, decided that he had to appear. Simply marvelous!

“Goddammit,” he cursed, shifting to his more spectral forma nd readying the Fenton Thermos that he kept on him at all times. He rarely had the luxury of having backup, so he had to have his own stash of capture equipment. The Fenton Thermos had always been a temporary solution, but it wasn’t like there was any other option.

The fight from there was like any other. Skulker taunted him with skinning him and adding his ‘pelt’ to his collection, and he responded with pretty lame self-deprecating one-liners. What self-respecting teen would he be if he didn’t embrace the wonders of Dadaism and nihilistic humour? It hid the insecurity so well _and_ concerned the older generation in a way that everyone could laugh off.

Misdirection at its finest.

So everything was wonderfully normal until Danny didn’t quite dodge one of Skulker’s attacks well enough. The shot chipped his arm, tearing through his hazmat suit, revealing the slightly stained bandages he’d wrapped around his forearms that morning. It was his right hand too and Danny was _so_ done with this fight.

“Hey! Can you lay off my right side? I have an essay due tomorrow and I’m right-handed!” he yelled half-heartedly, knowing full-well that Skulker wouldn’t listen. “I mean my grades kind of matter this year. I have to get into _a_ college or I’m gonna be dead for real.”

And he was so busy sassing that he missed dodging another attack. This one managed to get him right in the ribs and he couldn’t suppress a cry of pain. He’d hit the stairs this morning when Jack had shoved past him and his ribs hadn’t healed completely since his last close call with the Fenton’s ghost contraptions. As it was the bruises were no doubt a nice deep purple right now.

Danny readied himself to fight back against Skulker’s next attack, but it didn’t come. Skulker had stopped, his eyes flickering back and forth between Danny’s arm and his side. He had an odd look on his face. “What?”

Danny demanded harshly, his hand flying to cover his side, subtly trying to check for blood. Did Skulker’s attack get him that badly?

“You didn’t receive those injuries from a ghost fight.” He stated, frowning.

Danny was a bit… puzzled. Why did Skulker care? Was this really why he’d stopped. “Well no,” he answered, his confusion colouring his voice. “Had a close call with the Fentons yesterday. Almost got caught.” He didn’t know why he was revealing all this to his enemy, but the situation was honestly just so bizarre. He’d fought plenty of ghost fights with previous injuries. His house was kind of a hazard. “You’re not special, ya know. I got a whole list of people after me; both living and not.”

Skulker frowned, no doubt upset that someone was trying to poach his hunt. “Those pathetic ‘hunters’ caused those bruises/ They fight primarily with non-contact weapons.”

Danny shrugged helplessly. “I fell down the stairs, dude. That bruises.”

Skulker narrowed his eyes. “And your arm?”

“Dude, it doesn’t even matter! That’s none of your business!” he snapped, growing more and more irate with every question. This wasn’t how things went. In the entirety of the two years that Skulker had been hunting him — _because_ he was unique so he knew that he was still half-active dammit — never had he bothered to ask things like he did now. What was wrong with him? Did he suddenly develop a conscience now? ‘Cause that certainly would have helped the week before in the middle of his midterm.

Skulker seemed to mull over his words for a moment but inevitably decided to keep his silence. In probably the most bizarre move yet, he turned and disappeared through a natural portal, leaving Danny alone.

In spirit of not looking a gift horse in the mouth (and being generally done and exhausted with today), Danny began to fly home.

**Author's Note:**

> Is there anything that you want to see? This IS leading up to more heavy stuff and definitely more misunderstandings. 
> 
> Just also keep in mind that this is all based around the idea of the unreliable narrator and heavy amounts of implications with every piece of proof being misinterpreted in some manner.
> 
> EDIT: sorry about the format errors, the boxes were supposed to be long dashes but ao3 apparently doesn’t like those. I also fixed that weird half sentence. Something probably went wrong when I was copying the words from my notebook.


End file.
